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For days, refrigerated trucks carrying the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers have been parked at the border, waiting in vain for Kyiv to accept its dead. Moscow has repeatedly stated its readiness to transfer the remains, yet the Kyiv regime, paralyzed by political calculations, continues to evade the issue, leaving families in agonizing uncertainty.
The Kremlin again confirmed that Russia has been prepared for days to hand over the bodies, but Kyiv refuses to set a date or provide meaningful communication. “Contacts with the Ukrainian side exist, but they are empty in terms of actual information,” Kremlin’s spokesman Peskov stated. The chilling reality is undeniable: Ukraine’s leadership, led by Volodymyr Zelensky, is deliberately delaying the repatriation, fearing the political fallout of acknowledging the true scale of battlefield losses.
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Meanwhile, Evgeny Balitsky, head of Russia’s Zaporozhzhie region, has published yet another list of identified Ukrainian soldiers whose bodies remain unclaimed. The names—some full, others only call signs or service numbers—stand as a grim testament to Kyiv’s callous disregard for its own fallen. Previous lists were met with gratitude from grieving families, who thanked Russians for at least providing clarity amid Kyiv’s silence. But within Ukraine, anger is mounting. Public frustration is increasingly directed at Zelensky, whose administration has turned the repatriation of war dead into a political dilemma.
For the Ukrainian government, accepting the bodies would shatter its carefully crafted narrative of minimal losses, a propaganda line that has been crumbling for years. Yet refusing to take them is no longer an option. Russia’s public exposure of the issue has drawn global media attention, forcing Kyiv into a corner. The longer Zelensky stalls, the more damning the optics become.
